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Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Seeds, Seeds, Seeds

We finally got our seed orders in this weekend, after ogling several catalogs for weeks. Each year, our garden ambitions grow larger, though we are constrained by the confines of our yard and the available sunlight. We live in town, on less than two tenths of an acre. While we have a great Southern exposure, there are some tall trees, and neighboring houses, that limit the amount of space that gets enough sunlight to grow vegetables. Far from the traditional rectangle, our garden's perimeter meanders and curves to take maximal advantage of the sun. Each year we see how much more we can cram in, and whether there are any other little pockets of possible growing space that we hadn't taken advantage of previously. Perhaps this is a little obsessive, but the joy of growing delicious food is so rewarding, we keep at it.

And, of course, one way to ensure that your food is local is to grow it yourself! We make no pretenses of supplying all our own needs from the garden--that just wouldn't be possible. But we grow things we like, and things that are expensive if you buy them (heirloom tomatoes, for example), and we freeze what we can for the winter. This year will mark our first full harvest season with a chest freezer, and I am looking forward to being able to put away more than I did last year.

So what will be going into the garden this year? Well, off the top of my head...13 kinds of tomatoes (one plant each), two kinds of sweet peppers, four kinds of carrots, four kinds of eggplant, lettuce, kale, chard, spinach, bok choy, mizuma, arugula, some other specialty greens, fennel, winter squash, summer squash, parsley, basil, cilantro, hot peppers, parsnips, rutagaba (my husband insists!), celeriac, three kinds of cucumbers, snow peas, snap peas, pole beans, and undoubtedly several other things that I can't think of right now. I can't wait! When will the snow melt?